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« on: 27 August 2007, 10:04:17 »
Due to my continental connection I seem to get involved with LHD cars more often than your average motorist..
A few years ago a friend who moved away from the UK left me an LHD A-Reg Merc 280SEL with 110,000km (70k miles) to sell on his behalf. Not bad at all for what was then a 15 years old car. It was garaged and immaculate. I drove it for a few months waiting for the right buyer, and eventually sold it to an Iranian guy who took it out to Iran with him.
We now have an R-reg LHD Previa which we bought new in Europe and brought here with us almost 10 years ago. It is used for the school run and only covered around 30k miles. It has full Toyota main dealer history and is in excellent condition, but externally has a few dents and scratches. We will eventually be looking at selling it, though as before with the Merc I will need to find the right buyer. Interestingly it seems to attract attention from buyers from African countries, my understanding is that these cars are much loves in places like Nigeria, and the cost of a body repairs over there is practically nil (the Toyota dealer in North London quoted £4.5 just for a re-spray!).
We are also looking at buying a new car to replace the Previa (at which point the Previa will go on sale), but can’t make up our minds whether to buy it here or in Europe. Buying in Europe is cheaper, and the wife prefers the left-hand driving position anyway (the only problem really is with car parks barrier ticket machines), but I prefer a car that will be easy to sell – if we get another LHD car than I will again have to drive it around for a couple of months until the right buyer (probably from Africa or Middle East) is found, while an RHD car can be traded-in at any dealership.
Just wondered what where your thought on the subject... how difficult it would be to sell LHD cars here, and if you have any suggestions for a better/quicker way to sell the LHD Previa when the time comes, rather than drive it around trying to attract attention from foreigners...?
